


Your Skin, So New

by redqueentheory



Series: I'm With the Band [17]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Anal Sex, Anxiety, Awkward Conversations, Insomnia, M/M, Post-Finale, Rimming, eventual OT3, gigantic nerds, oblique references to Brad/Taako
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-26 06:11:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14395980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redqueentheory/pseuds/redqueentheory
Summary: Taako ruminates on a post-Hunger world. Kravitz catches up on Taako's state of mind. They strike a bargain about living arrangements.





	Your Skin, So New

A week ago the world ended, and then didn’t. They’ve been rocketing from crisis to crisis since, putting out fires - some literal, some metaphorical - reassuring randos, and taking stock of how the whole invisible-alien-army apocalypse has shaken things up. In Taako’s case, he’s been mostly focused on finding things to do to distract himself from the fact that he keeps waking up in the middle of the night, freezing cold, with the realisation that turns his stomach sour with dread, _everyone knows_ ** _everything_** _about him-_

He’s doing what he can. Keeping busy. Finding the most menial, anonymous work they've got - cleanup, mostly, where they move huge chunks of rubble around (much to Magnus' delight), and Taako half-heartedly pretends to hide lost valuables on his person just to give Merle the opportunity to click his tongue disapprovingly. There's plenty of it to do still, in the wake of this whole clusterfuck, but he’s been confined to their apartment for the next twelve hours with strict instructions from Lup to _sleep, or at least pretend to, Koko, you look like ass_. He hadn't even had the energy to be offended. And even though she probably won't know if he paces around the halls of the Bureau at 3am - probably - he feels odd about resisting, fearful. Like pushing back too hard might just mean he loses her again.

And anyway. He'll just end up wasting time if he ranges around outside, the place is a damn ghost town. The whole organisation is sleeping in shifts but anyone who’s awake at this hour is probably down planetside sorting through the most critical crisis.

So he’s just... lying here, with his newly-reassembled brain, which he’d half expected would do him a solid and ply him with thoughts about - who knows, any of the extensive years of mostly-pleasant family memories he’s still startled to realise he has, but apparently that’s a no-go. What he’s stuck on instead is his new _fame_.

Taako likes adoration. Attention. Revels in it, even. You don't start a travelling cooking show that trades on reputation unless you're the kind of person who enjoys being in the limelight. But there's limelight and then there's a fucking floodlight.

If he’d been asked, _theoretically,_ about this situation, Taako knows he would've said _hell yeah, Taako’s down, sign me up for the lifetime of free shit._ Which makes it all the worse that every time he lets himself think about it he feels like his skin is about to split at the seams and the essence of Taako is gonna just drift away into the air. Or he’s going to vomit. One of the two.

Taako is good at avoidance, and maybe he would have been able to determinedly ignore this too, if it was just up to him. But it's not just up to him, because his _boyfriend,_ who Taako has to reluctantly admit to himself he _loves,_ had exuberantly declared that _everyone in reality_ knew who he was and _everything about him_. And Kravitz had been so excited and cheerful about it - clearly feeling the way Taako _wants_ to feel about being universally famous and adored.

It'd be one thing if he'd just said it and let it go, but every time they've managed a call since - not many, Kravitz is working overtime, something about the laws of reality being stretched like toffee and snapping back into place playing havoc with death or whatever - every time they’ve talked it's come up, somehow, and Taako has had to play modest dutiful hero, which he hates.

Even antihero is pushing it. Anything with ‘hero’ in the title sucks. Ideally Taako wouldn't even be doing the cleanup, would have ditched days ago to roll on up the coast and find a deserted beach somewhere to live for a while, but he can't figure out the best way to break to Magnus and Merle that he wants to leave. He doesn't want to leave _them_ , it’s just that he's jumping out of his skin to get away from the Bureau, all it means to him gone bleak and sour.

He finally mutters a curse, rolls out of bed to drape himself in a threadbare robe, because naked pacing is just embarrassing. That, and it’s cold up here at night. If he’s going to be awake thinking about this he may as well be doing it in comfort.

His thoughts have been circling around and around the drain for some time when he finally swears, grabs his Stone of Farspeech before he can think about it, and calls Kravitz’ frequency.

He answers quickly, at least. “Good evening,” comes the warm greeting, and then, “Well. Morning, apparently, for you. Are you all right?”

“Fine, fine,” Taako says. “You got a sec? No ghosts to zip off and arrest for trespassing?”

An amused noise. “My shift starts in four hours. I would have called you if I'd known you were awake.”

Taako hesitates. He probably should have thought this through. “Hey, so listen,” he begins, uncertain.

“Yes?” says Kravitz, cheerily, and oh gods this was so stupid; the sound of his voice just adds detail to Taako’s memory of that conversation, of those words, colouring in between the sketchy lines of what he remembers and drawing out the detail, sharper and clearer in his mind’s eye. He cringes to think about it, and now that he’s here on the stone all he wants to do is throw it into the sea and go and find someone to distract him until the embarrassment wears off, but- stop being such a _coward_ , Taako, so-

“Can we…” He trails off, and then shakes his head. “Look, I need to talk about… some stuff.”

“Sounds serious,” Kravitz says, an archness to his tone that Taako desperately wants to bounce back at him, turn this conversation into another flirty game.

“Yeah,” he says, instead. Raw.

A pause. A long one. Odd, for Kravitz, though not unprecedented; Taako has become extremely fond of his endless half-seriousness, but just as fond of the awkward oddball who bursts forth when he’s under pressure, all affected accents and dramatics. He’s usually very good at maintaining the charm but Taako has noticed, as they’ve gotten closer, that while he usually reads people easily and always seems to know what to say when he does, the unexpected throws him for a loop. 

“Should I come over?” Kravitz says, finally. There’s enough anxiousness in his voice to make Taako feel bad about his own dramatics, but this conversation would absolutely never happen in person. Taako knows himself, has started being honest with himself occasionally, and knows if he has Kravitz in front of him, all warm smile and appealing eyes, he’s not going to say anything that might get in between him and having his dick sucked.

“No,” Taako says. “Better if we just talk.” He takes a breath. “You, uh. You remember the conversation we had? You know, after I single-handedly saved your ass from like… Goo River.”

“How could I forget,” Kravitz says. There's an edge to his tone, discomfort with being the one struggling with surprise clear in the exaggerated vowels. 

“You really think..." And then he stops, feels his throat clog up with- dread, and cowardice, and now he _does_ want to throw the stone into the sea; just vanish the window and fling it as far as he can manage, but it's futile, Kravitz has a fucking... inter-planar portal knife.

The pause goes on too long. “Darling are you all right?” Kravitz says, concerned. “Did I say something wro-”

Taako barks out a laugh. "No, no, it's not about you, it's just. Remember how you said. Everyone was going to... that everyone would. You know."

"I said everyone would love you, after hearing your story,” Kravitz says slowly. “Is that what we're talking about?”

Just hearing it makes Taako want to crush the stone under his heel. "Yeah.” He laughs weakly, hates how thin and frayed his voice is. “Gotta tell you, my man, that whole… sitch is a big fat nope up in Taako-town.”

There’s a pause, presumably while Kravitz parses his sudden detour back into the third person. “I thought you quite liked being the centre of attention,” Kravitz says. But his tone is careful, even, not accusatory, so Taako doesn’t have to work very hard to push back against the instinct to argue. “What’s different?”

“Being the centre of attention is one thing,” Taako says, slowly. Not really sure where he’s going with this, nervous and raw and scraped bare but it’s just _Kravitz_ \- Kravitz, who lost a game of cards to _Magnus_ of all people; Kravitz, who insisted on a (relatively) chaste sleepover on their first date. So. “This is kinda a different ball park though, seems like.”

“A larger scale.”

Taako makes a frustrated noise, runs his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I mean, that's kinda weird and all too, but like… the whole point of the Taako Show is that Taako _runs the show,_ you know?” He has to stop for a second and fight down the wobble in his voice. “Shit, half the time _I'm_ surprised by the things I remember, and I'm supposed to be cool with some raised-by-wolves rando knowing it all just as well?” He's breathing too quickly now. “I mean. Some of that shit is fucking personal.”

There's a silence, and he kind of hates that he knows exactly what Kravitz is doing - riding the fantasy Kodak Carousel of Taako's life story around and around in his own brain, watching a hundred years of fear and love and grief–

“Taako,” Kravitz says, voice low and gentle. “I’m sorry, love.”

They’ve talked about that before. Kravitz himself dropping the L-bomb wasn’t exactly a surprise, so hearing it now shouldn’t be, either, except - except that it is, it still is, every time, to hear it given so freely, unreservedly. Taako loves Kravitz, too; knows it’s partly forged in the absolute fucking hellfire of the last few months but who _cares_ , he’s a hundred years older than he thought he was and he knows when something’s real, tangible, enduring. But it’s still a private thing that he holds close to his chest, keeps to himself except at his most affectionate or most vulnerable.

Kravitz shares none of Taako’s carefully cultivated reservedness.  He’s direct about his feelings in a way Taako isn’t used to, hasn’t quite learned how to take in stride. It still leaves him blindsided half the time. Which is the excuse he’ll give later for why in response to Kravitz’ unconditional sympathy he just blurts, “Come live with me.”

“…I beg your pardon?” Kravitz says, and the smile in his voice is a tangible thing.

“I mean I know you got your whole… interdimensional bullshit,” Taako says, tries to keep his tone casual. “But you need a base while you’re topside, right?”

“The planes aren’t exactly arranged relative to each other in that sense-“

“Leave your shit at my place,” Taako says, cutting off the exposition. “Live with me while you’re here.” He shrugs, knows Kravitz will sense it. “Been spending that much time in my room on the moon anyway, we probably won’t even notice the difference.”

“You’re very sweet,” Kravitz murmurs. “But I do think we should discuss this in person.”

It’s a silky tone of promise that Taako is very intimate with by now, shivers a little to hear, the familiar weight of expectation settling into his bones. “Well then,” he says, mock regretful. “Guess it’ll have to wait until we’re-“

A cold hand slides around his waist; cold lips press into his neck.

“What happened to not wanting it to be weird,” Taako grumbles, but turns within the circle of Kravitz’ hold anyway, smiles at him. “Hi.”

“Hello,” Kravitz says, smiling back. He grips Taako’s waist, tighter than Taako would have expected, belying his relaxed lean. “You were asking me to move in with you, I believe.”

The sudden flush of embarrassment isn’t… bad, actually. Taako finds that he quite enjoys feeling a little off-balance; has missed feeling as though he’s not in control, at least in a situation where all it means is a slightly awkward conversation. It’s kind of nice, that swooping feeling of vertigo, when he doesn’t have far to fall. “Listen.”

Kravitz hums, a drawn out expectant thing, as he looks up at Taako from underneath his lashes. Prods a finger into Taako’s ribs. “Please, go on.”

“I…” Taako hadn’t really thought this through, but he’s committed now, and- and isn’t the whole point of this him saying all the things he was too frightened to say, before? To be open about what he wants, put everything out there, let things go how they will? “I wanna keep you around,” he says, all in a rush, words running together as he forces them out. “You have to have somewhere to put all these fancy jackets you keep showing up for dates in. Have you ever repeated an outfit, skeledork? How much closet space are we gonna need?”

Kravitz snorts a laugh, not quite as composed as he’d usually seem. The grip on Taako’s waist is still tight, and there’s a tenseness around his eyes that has Taako suddenly on guard until he realises that while he’s nervous, Kravitz is, too. That for all the teasing both of them are nervous, that this is a big deal for both of them, and surely that means they’re on a level, right? And that’s gotta be good.

“And I don’t want to live by myself,” Taako adds, and is startled to realise he means it. He still doesn't want to live with any of the others - not Merle, not Magnus, not Lup, even, although that one’s probably off the table anyway. He definitely wants to keep them within check-in distance, but he's not _clingy,_ it doesn't have to be _next door_. Probably why he's finding it so hard to tell them about it. “I need space, my own space, away from-” Taako gestures, trying to encompass _the BOB_ but also _my past and anyone who wants to talk to me about it,_ “-but I still… want you in it.”

A funny little half smile, sincere. “I understand.” Kravitz shrugs an elegant, one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t need a place to stay, exactly - my own apartment is a window in space away, but it's the sort of place where I'd have to file at least two different forms for you to be able to visit, and,” a small crease between his brows, “it might not be all that comfortable for you…” The expression clears. “I can always keep using it as storage.” He smiles up at Taako, open, and it’s hard not to inhale sharply when there’s someone this pretty looking at him like _that_ , uncomplicated affection on his face. “Does this mean we’re going house hunting together?”

“Guess so,” Taako agrees, and lets relief propel him forward, to cup Kravitz’ face in his hands and kiss him. Kravitz laughs a little, tips his head and Taako… Taako weirdly hasn't been thinking about sex at all, head real estate all taken up by chaos and destruction and his old-new family and wanting really, _really_ badly to be elsewhere. So it takes a moment for his brain to click into gear, but in the meantime the rest of him is one hundo percent maximum power _on board_ and he realises that he's licking into Kravitz’ mouth, urgent and clumsy, as he pushes them backwards across his room, towards his bed. Kravitz is laughing, quiet and warm, and exhales suddenly as Taako shoves him backwards to land on the mattress, where he bounces a little. Props himself up on his elbows.

“Shouldn’t we toast first,” he says, archness flooding back now that the stressful part of the conversation is over. Taako ignores him, picking frantically at the messy knot in the robe sash, knowing Kravitz can just- evaporate-

Sure enough, when he drops the robe to the floor Kravitz is smirking, clothes nowhere to be found. “Asshole,” Taako mutters. “That’s fuckin’ cheating." Presses his knees to the mattress, either side of Kravitz' thighs, scoots forward to press torsos together as he kisses Kravitz again, back down onto the surface of the bed.

"I'm getting the strong impression you missed me," Kravitz murmurs into his mouth.

All of the things that Taako has been holding in place overwhelm him for a moment - a wave of firmly repressed emotions which he hadn’t intended to look at ever again, chief among them the kind of relief that turns his bones to water. “Yeah,” he says, and swallows hard against the lump in his throat. “Yeah, I- I was so- it was so good to see you and then-”

Kravitz shushes him. “It's all right. You won.” He quirks a smile. “So did I.”

Taako huffs a laugh and bites Kravitz’ lip, revels in the small surprised exhalation, soothes the bite with his lips.

“Wait, wait,” Kravitz says, trying to pull away. “I need to make it _not weird_ -”

“Let me do it,” Taako murmurs. Presses his hand to the centre of Kravitz’ chest and pulls at the air with prestidigitation, feels heat spilling out between his fingers, the body beneath him warming to the touch. “Easy peasy. Now where were we?”

It’s so easy, and so _good_. The press of skin, the roll of their hips together; all of a sudden Taako wants all of it, desperate to touch as much of Kravitz as he can possibly manage, partly because it feels incredible and partly because it means they’re both _here_.

Taako’s hands roam freely over Kravitz’ body, kneading, as he leans forward to press them both into the mattress.  Kravitz’ soft laughter slowly melts away into something with more edge to it, a running litany of small gasps. Taako finds himself focusing in on them; experimenting, rolling a nipple between his fingers and sucking a bruise into Kravitz’ throat and scraping nails over his scalp, the slow build of noise playing into an instinct he’d missed, taking another person apart. Kravitz’ eyes are dark and he’s murmuring Taako’s name in between nonsense endearments, and moaning. And the thrill of it, of breaking someone down like this, watching them surrender in this way, goes right to Taako’s dick.

He loops a loose hand around the both of them, thrusts idly; Kravitz hums in approval, looks up at him with a smile, and rocks into Taako’s grip himself. The closeness of it, the pure uncomplicated pleasure of it, has Taako’s pulse racing in the back of his throat, eagerness closing in on him from behind.

“You’re teasing me,” Kravitz murmurs, and Taako grins, speaks a slow word like molasses, tightens his hand and ruts forward again. Newly slick, the movement is easy and the loud breathy noise of want it pulls out of Kravitz sends a surge of desire through him.

There’s a way this would normally go, a certain rhythm to things that has become wonderfully familiar. It would be easy to sink into it, let comfort and habit and fondness guide him through it, but Taako realises that he wants - needs - something else from this. He immediately shies away from thinking about it, but he can’t escape the sense that despite his fascination and appetite for slowly unravelling Kravitz’ composure, watching him unwind into this loose-limbed ravenous thing, he also wants to be-

-secured.

"Hey," he says, and quirks his own half-smile. "If I'm gonna be putting you up in my hard earned apartment, maybe you should do some work to earn it."

"What do you suggest?" Kravitz asks, low, and Taako grins at him. Rolls to the side onto his back, splays his legs wide.

"Reckon it's about time you did the work, handsome," he says, as he thumbs idly at the head of his cock.

And Kravitz smiles, but there’s teeth to it, intent, and his voice is lower again as he says, “How could I refuse such a delightful invitation.” As he shifts up onto his knees, climbs up to prop himself above Taako and lean in and down to kiss him again.

It’s good. Of course it’s good, Taako is horny as hell and desperately wants this; the weight of how close they came to all being reduced to ash and nothingness is bearing down on him and he wants to get gloriously fucked, a huge middle finger to the universe which tried to take him out. But he’s also fighting super hard to push back on a flood of memories he’s repressed, so if he also wants desperately _not_ to think about the last time he got fucked, wants to replace those memories with something less messed up, can anyone fuckin’ _blame_ a guy, he thinks, a little frenzied; says, “Hey, seriously, I don’t wanna be wooed, I’m not in the mood, I wanna feel you _please_ don’t make me wait,” and Kravitz’ eyes darken.

“First,” Kravitz says, and dips his head; Taako squirms, hears himself say “Come on babe you don’t have to, I wanna get _fucked_ I don’t care about-” but Kravitz just kisses the tip of his dick, very gently, before moving it out of the way and leaning down and in to lick a wet, slow stripe up Taako’s ass.

He yells, and is momentarily, crazily grateful for the sound suppression spells on his room. Kravitz laughs a little, a puff of warm air. “Why don’t you turn over.”

“Ugh, jesus, you’re really killing me here,” Taako complains, but he’s definitely smiling as he turns over, can’t help pressing his hips down into the mattress; the sweet ache of it and the vibration of Kravitz’ chuckle so close to his asshole makes him moan loudly into the pillow.

“Anyone would think you’d nearly died and were eager for some life-affirming sex,” Kravitz says, and Taako chokes back a laugh and looks over his shoulder.

“I’m sure death will come in due course,” he says, arch, which makes Kravitz laugh in earnest, rest his forehead on Taako’s tailbone as his shoulders shake. “Or at least, he might, if he gets on with the fuckin’ job.”

“So eager to know the sweet embrace of mortality,” Kravitz murmurs, voice still unsteady with suppressed giggling, and Taako is in the middle of coming up with a clever retort when there’s a flat finger pressing against him, and then _in_ , a low, pleasant burn, and he forgets about the banter and sighs, instead.

Kravitz’ tongue joins his finger without fanfare, and Taako - he’s not unused to this but it’s always so _much_ , flickering wet heat against tender hidden places, that he can’t help the restless press of his hips to the sheets; his turn, now, to have murmuring sighs drawn out of him, the slow build of heat leaving him relaxed and splayed out beneath Kravitz’ hands.

And then there’s a pat on his ass as the warmth withdraws, and Kravitz says, “I want to look at you, dear one,” and Taako- Taako tenses up against that, for a moment, a little unsure about how to process it, but then - _dear one_ , this _nerd_ , and he’s smiling as he turns over and pulls Kravitz up to brace over his shoulders and leans in to kiss him. Uncaring, even as he murmurs the same word as before and slides his hand over Kravitz’ cock, drinks in the unadorned groan Kravitz makes into his mouth.

“Hey,” Taako says, against his lips; ignores the thudding of his heart in his chest. “Please.”

“Of course,” Kravitz says. Braces himself. Pushes forward, slow, and Taako drops all attempt at pretense and lets his head fall back against the bed, a drawn-out noise of pleasure turning high and tight at the end.

It’s not- the same. It’s _better_ , he tells himself, firmly, as Kravitz ducks his head to press a soft kiss to Taako’s neck and he brings his legs up to curl around his waist and murmurs, “S’good, sweetheart.” Is delighted by the shuddering sigh Kravitz presses into his skin in response, before lifting back up to kiss Taako’s nose, eyebrows, temples, chin-

He squirms. “Seriously, you gotta move or I’ll _die_ -”

“I thought we’d established that as a certainty,” Kravitz says, even as he pulls back and thrusts forward again. 

“Gods, shut up,” Taako murmurs into his ear, wraps his arms around Kravitz’ back. Suddenly it’s very, very important that he have as much skin-to-skin contact as he can, that he be touching Kravitz in every way possible, as his- god, his boyfriend, _shit_ , sets a slow pace that sends him slowly spiralling out of his mind. Taako tries another murmured “Krav, _baby_ , don’t be _gentle_ ,” and delights in the darkening of the eyes above him, the sudden sharp increase in pace. Falls back, closes his eyes just to _feel_ it; the snap of hips, the drag of skin, the unnecessary puffs of breath on his face.

He finally can’t bear to wait any longer, says, “I’m gonna- touch-” and Kravitz says “ _Please_ ,” with the kind of open urgency Taako has come to expect from him. Taako wraps a hand around his own cock and watches Kravitz’ face, watches his eyelids growing heavy until he finally tips forward to press his face into Taako’s shoulder.

“I can’t - Taako, if you keep up I’ll just-”

“Good,” Taako says, forceful, rolls his hips up to meet the next thrust just to prove his point. “Do it, I want it, I want to feel you come inside me,” and Kravitz’ hips turn ragged and frantic and he bites Taako’s collarbone with too-sharp teeth as he comes with a whine. 

 _Obedient_ , Taako thinks, and then shakes his head to dislodge the thought.

“Sorry,” Kravitz says, sounding rueful, and Taako shakes his head again, because- everything is warm, now, and slippery, and he presses up against Kravitz and says “It’s fine, it’s good, just keep- moving-” and his voice comes out breathy and high but he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care at all, because Kravitz does as he’s told, keeps moving and bends his head to lave his tongue over Taako’s nipple. He drives his hips down and clenches around Kravitz, whose cock twitches in response, and he’s so keyed up that it doesn’t take much more than that until he’s coming all over his own chest.

Taako buries his hands in Kravitz’ hair, tugs him up to kiss him again, lazy and too-loose and open-mouthed, tugs him forward until they’re pressed together again, heedless of the cum sticky between them. They stay like that for a while, Taako’s breathing slowing, and when he’s finally relaxed again Kravitz props himself up on an elbow and looks down at him. He’s looking Taako right in the eye when he says, “I do love you.”

There’s nowhere to run; nowhere to divert, nothing Taako can say that won’t sound like an evasion in the face of it stated so simply. He laughs, nervous, instead. “Hey, I don’t—“

“That’s all right,” Kravitz says, cutting him off. “I’m not trying to convince you to say it. But I wanted to be perfectly clear.” He leans up to press a soft kiss to the corner of Taako’s mouth. “If we’re going to be living together.”

Kravitz is giving him an out, Taako knows; an opportunity to back down from the impulsive invitation. He does not want to take it. “Does this mean I can sweet talk you into doing all the chores,” he says, instead, and basks in the warm glow of Kravitz’ answering smile.

“I haven’t done a chore in centuries,” Kravitz tells him. “Do you really want me washing your dishes?”

“Gonna have to learn, aren’t you,” Taako says, and strokes his cheek.

Kravitz makes a face. “That _sounds_ awfully boring, but I suppose I can make an effort for you.”

“I’m worth it,” Taako tells him; leans up to kiss the side of his mouth.

Kravitz murmurs “Seems like you might be,” and in defiance of instinct and experience Taako allows himself to feel hopeful about where this is going. And where this evening - morning? - has ended up, in particular.

He pokes Kravitz in the side. “Your shift wasn’t for four hours, you said.”

“More likely three and a half, by now.” He rolls over onto his back, and looks up at Taako, gold eyes warm in the dimness. “Did you have some sort of schedule in mind for the next few hours?”

“Had a few thoughts,” Taako says. “Here’s the plan: we raid the kitchen, return fortified with candy, browse fantasy real estate and make out some. Sound ok?”

“What sort of candy,” Kravitz says, very serious. “I’m quite partial to fruit bon-bons.”

“What is a _bonbon_ , are you a _thousand_ years old?” Taako crowds toward him. “No, we don’t have whatever that is, you’re just going to have to take what you get.”

Kravitz’ eyes crinkle as Taako presses a kiss to his jaw. “I suppose I’ll survive.”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hugely grateful to Goose for her input on this one - she hit on all the little things that stumped me in my first draft of this fic and helped me fix them.
> 
> Title from Vance Joy's [Lay It On Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXXD1Qxpisw), which I'm embarrassed to admit I've listened to on repeat and like, belted out in my car thinking about IWTB more generally. I've just got a lot of feelings don't at me!
> 
>  
> 
> [@rqtheory_](http://www.twitter.com/rqtheory_)


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